Started life as a 2x400MHz system, but the frontplate and the system board gave up. Now back from the dead, and with a faster CPU as well

This used to be a Discreet Flame system, maybe it will be back as such. I added the DIVO, wonder if Flame picks it up.I removed the FC XIO card in slot 'D' because I don't like 'fast fan' all that much. I'll probably replace the SCSI card in the PCI cage with something faster and/or add a PCI FC card instead. The IOC3 can be replaced with a gigabit board. Also has a Digi ClassicBoard PCI 4port serial board which shows up as "PCI card, bus 0, slot 2, Vendor 0x114f, Device 0x4"

Got the cables to hook up the DM5 to the DCD and hacked the gigabit card. I attached a STONE FC JBOD, but the disks are rather noisy. Damn Discreet and their "special" firmware. The pair of 300GB seagate 10K.7 disks attached to the QL12160 in the PCI cardcage has more capacity, and is whisper quiet...

I think I paid €250 for the system with 2x400MHz CPUs, 4GB RAM, V12 graphics and PCI cage. That was probably in 2008. It came with various bits and pieces to run a Discreet Flame as well. I think I paid some more for some fibre channel hardware (a SUN A5200??). The catch was that the seller had back problems and needed someone to come over and remove it from his place. I prefer to do business in person, but for the seller it limits the audience (thus lowers the price ).

The extra carrier with V12, DCD, DM2 and FC adapter was $200 ... $250 shipped from Israel. I don't know anymore what I paid for the CPU, I think it was $350 + shipping from the US. You can buy the 3c996bT ethernet cards and the QLA2342 FC cards for a couple of bucks.

Lesson to learn here: you can get a pretty decent machine for a fair price, but if the upgrade fever hits and you buy the top spec parts individually you can easily double or triple your total cost. Even if you patiently wait for 2 years for a favorable deal like I did. Of course now I have a spare V12, and the 2x400MHz CPU ended up in a system I sold on so I reclaimed some of my money again.

Back then the exchange rate USD:EUR was also more favorable and they didn't really bother with import tax on items worth less than ~ EUR 250 or so.

Oh, and I did a fresh install on the system as usual. And then I managed to loose the backup of the Flame installation

To accentuate the special identity of the IRIS 4D/70, Silicon Graphics' designers selected a new color palette. The machine's coating blends dark grey, raspberry and beige colors into a pleasing harmony. (IRIS 4D/70 Superworkstation Technical Report)